A sexual assault case has been dismissed against a Utah State Prison inmate who was already serving time for sexually abusing another woman.
David Zachary Swigart, 53, was charged in November with several sexual assault counts after DNA testing linked him to a September 2010 sexual assault of a woman who had been walking to a Salt Lake County bus stop.
But a judge on Monday dismissed the case at the request of Swigart’s attorneys, after the alleged victim never got on a plane in January to come to Utah to testify at a preliminary hearing.
“We have lost contact with her,” Deputy Salt Lake County District Attorney Andrew Deesing said Tuesday.
The charges were dismissed without prejudice, meaning the case can be refiled in the future. Deesing said if investigators can get back in contact with the woman — who now lives out of state — prosecutors will consider refiling the case.
Swigart is accused of following the woman to the bus stop on Sept. 16, 2010, telling her he had a gun and threatening to kill her if she did not go to a nearby parking lot with him, charges state.
Behind a nearby business, Swigart took the woman to the ground with a choke hold and raped her, charges state. He then ran away.
DNA evidence gathered during a sexual assault examination was matched to Swigart several years later.
Swigart is currently serving a prison sentence stemming from another 2010 sexual assault, where he admitted to following a woman from a Sandy TRAX station into a field. There, he grabbed her hair from behind and pulled her to the ground, charges state, then sexually assaulted her and choked her as she screamed for help.
In that case, Swigart pleaded guilty to first-degree felony attempted aggravated assault. He was sentenced in 2011 to serve a term of three years to life.
